McCain Campaign’s Strategy On Palin Shows Signs Of Working

The hatred for Palin (driven by a desperate overreaction to her selection?) has been inexcuseable. (Not surprising from the Left, though. Biden's gaffes have been kept out of the news, naturally.) Let Palin stand or fall on her own. Will she or will she not have a "Stockdale moment" or more than one tonight? That is the question. (Biden simply is going to be free potential extra entertainment tonight.)

I have no hatred for her, I just think that her selection by McCain to be his running mate speaks volumes on his inability to be the next POTUS. It's all about judgement, & his is an epic FAIL.
I have a feeling she'll do better tonight than many expect, but it really won't take away from the fact that she is in way over her head. America deserves better.

What hatred? I don't hate the woman, I'm just afraid for this country if she's given a seat at the big table that is beyond her fiefdom small-politics mindset's capacity to handle. She has shown in her capacity as a public official the same kowtowing-loyalist vindictiveness that rivals Cheney and Bush.

It's the faux outrage, reaction formation projection placement that the far-right tries to frame it as. The personality-martyr complex. Its the same blame game Palin plays. Don't confuse me with the facts, just tell me who to point the finger at.

For my tax dollars I want someone who has a bunch of letters after their name, and the track record to back it up, without the regurgitant spin cycle retrofit.

Yes DLS, Parker(at NRO), Larison, Frumm and other conservativesKossacks hate Palin because of her experience and qualifications.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDZiMDhjYT...
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjUzYmY1OT...

Speak Correctly
Or build a big bunker.

By Kathleen Parker

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a traitor and an idiot. Also, my mother should have aborted me and left me in a dumpster, but since she didn’t, I should “off” myself.

Those are just a few nuggets randomly selected from thousands of e-mails written in response to my column suggesting that Sarah Palin is out of her league and should step down.

Who says public discourse hasn’t deteriorated?

If you listen to the airwaves, particularly lefty talk radio (often extremist, admittedly), you will find plenty of hatred. In the mainstream media it's merely toned down.

If anything, Rudi, I have more respect for Kathleen Parker (she is, after all, not famously vapid like worse-than-worthless Maureen Dowd) than I have for David Frum (an elitist who advocates Dem Lite Republicanism).

As for the current campaigns, Pew reports the obvious, that Obama is rising,

http://people-press.org/report/456/obama-regain...

and there's a lot for McCain riding on Palin's performance tonight.

http://blogs.wsj.com/politicalperceptions/2008/...

(Note that the Wall Street Journal blog pages include frequently _bizarre_ reader remarks.)

I share DLS's shock and horror that people are scrutinizing and attacking a politician. What is the world coming to?

Hatred may be the wrong word. More appropriate might be incredulous. I do think that many left wing voices in the media and in the choir seem to fixate on details that are completely irrelevant. Of course many of those details were originally floated out by McCain's camp as evidence of her relatability and outsider status, so the left's predictable response has been to mock them.

Personally, I don't think it's a negative or positive that she's chosen to have five kids, for example. That she chooses to hunt doesn't bother me. Neither does her adherence to the contours of life in Alaska. I think it's admirable that she appears to be a master of the small, personal gesture. I find her speaking style to be annoying, but I really only care about the ideas she expresses with that style. Some of the other myths floating around, the alleged banning of books or charging for rape kits, have been much ado about very little to nothing and so, deserved much less response than they received.

All that said, I think she is a woeful choice for the second highest office in the land. Her inability to improvise any useful ideas on policy is unparalleled in a candidate for Congress or above in my experience. I say this as someone who has felt Bush was an utter embarrassment from the time he campaigned for the Republican nomination. I say this as someone who lives in Chicago, who has been subjected to wave after wave of political charlatans, from alderman, to mayor, to county board president. At this point, Palin is CLEARLY a small time politician biting off more than she can chew. She may grow and become formidable on a larger stage, but I firmly believe she does not have the chops right now to be an effective national leader.

Christoofar - so, you trust the judgment of a politician that associates with, works with for years, is mentored by, and has fund-raising and political events at the house of an unrepentant, murdering left-wing activist over one who selected a running mate you don't care for?

Interesting criteria, to say the least.

BTW - I didn't think she was a good choice at the time, and she STILL does not impress me, but that doesn't mean I think it shows McCain is off his rocker. From a purely political point of view, she has done what he needed her to do. I think he would be so much farther behind without all the attention she has brought. Sad commentary on modern politics, but reality.

and has fund-raising and political events at the house of an unrepentant, murdering left-wing activist

McCain is best buddies with an unrepentant war criminal, Henry Kissinger.

BTW, who did Ayers murder?

Wow Austin, overstate the relationship between Ayers and Obama JUST a tad, why don't you.

It appears you buy into right wing memes just as much, if not more so, than a lot of far left commenters. Pot, meet kettle.

Nope, I have said from the beginning that I thought the opposite is true - that the connections between Obama and Ayers has been downplayed and swept under the rug. I think they are deep, and that they share more than a small amount of political viewpoints (but no, I do not think Obama is going to advocate anarchy)

I do think they share a very radical idea of government control and indoctrination of children in significantly more left-wing ideas than Obama has been willing to admit as of late, and that those views extend to the edge of true radicalism.

Lest we forget George Will, another bastion of conservativist thought:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

What would WFB say, I wonder. I had high regard for people like Will and Buckley because they got their points across with minimum vitriol, or at least their turn of phrase was sufficiently sublime. Now we have bloviating "pundits" ( which means sage, or wise person btw) knee-jerking and tongue-swallowing.
Problem is they breed like rats through syndication ( thanks to killing off the Fairness Doctrine...hallooo deregulation!) and reap the rewards in the millions for their high-school grade shenanigans.


And with everything, the extreme sides of the argument should be discounted like the highs/lows of an Olympic score.

From Joe Klein:

There has been no grand cathartic moment for [Obama] in this campaign, but rather a steady accretion of trust, a growing public sense that he knows what he's talking about and isn't going to get crazy on us. His demeanor has rendered foolish all the rumors about his alleged radicalism. This guy is the furthest thing imaginable from an extremist; McCain, by his own admission, is the bomb-thrower in this race.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,184640...

Austin - Feel free to support your Obama-Ayers paranoia with any facts you may have. Perhaps Ayers was in cahoots with Larry Sinclair!!
I'm sure you have connections to get to the truth.
With his support of FISA, & more recently the obscene Wall St bailout, Obama is anything but a "radical librul", I'm afraid.

How quickly people forget how much scrutiny Obama received sometimes for the silliest things. As I recall, one Fox News host quipped at the time that he was on his way to get a pocket protector for his pencils. I suppose some bomb throwing radicals sport pocket protectors, but I'd say that perception is a bit of a stretch in most people's minds. So good luck with that.

At any rate, I thought the LA Times article mentioned in the topic was pretty funny. Whether or not it was intended as such, I thought it was tongue-in-cheek sarcasm. Yeah, McCain's post-convention Palin strategy is working like a real charm, it is.

In the same bomb-throwing radical vein (hehe), it appears Obama just picked up an endorsement from the bluegrass legend (and apparently latent commie pinko weirdo), Ralph Stanley. Oh ouch.

Who's next, Kinky Friedman?

Michigan may have fallen to Obama today. Reportedly the McCain campaign is leaving Michigan and redirecting its attention and funds elsewhere where he (still) has a better chance to win. (Will he flood Florida with campaign ads sometime soon, I wonder?)

Right before the VP debate. Great timing. Confidence inspiring.

AR sez "I do think they share a very radical idea of government control and indoctrination of children in significantly more left-wing ideas than Obama has been willing to admit as of late, and that those views extend to the edge of true radicalism."

AR, what you "think" means nothing in terms of electability. When Ayers was a radical, Obama was what, 9 years old? Hillary and McCain have tasked their formidable opposition research efforts to finding any smoking gun there. There isn't one. So your living in the past on this non-issue surprises me. Though we almost universally disagree, you usually seem to be a deeper thinker than this comment indicates.

GD - I am NOT talking about the distance past in their connections and my concerns. I am talking about the efforts of Obama and Ayers while running the Annenberg Challenge and The Woods Fund, in the 90's and into the early 2000's. Hardly ancient news.

As to what Ayers did then as compared to his views now, his own words damn him, and I am sure you are aware of them, but for those who do not:

Then, "Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon. The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them."

Now, "I don't regret setting bombs.I feel we didn't do enough."

Michigan fell to Obama long ago. Today was just the final nail. RE: any smoke to the Ayers - Obama connection, it's 99% wishful thinking on the part of Obama's more imaginative detractors. Palin "hate"? Just more absurdity from the creators of false narratives. I think she's a good woman and a strong woman. She's just not presidential material.

.Hahahahaha. oh my. Good luck trying to get traction for the tortured narrative about what Obama is supposed to have done wrong in working with an educational nonprofit to help Chicago public schools.

Oh yeah, but Ayers -yeah, he's a distinguished professor now- 50 years ago was a murderous, well, not really, I mean, he did say he did things in his book which he says is partly fiction, though nothing about murder. But Ayers! and Obama. They're like, they were on the same BOARD together. after he became a professor. And he's well, he might have been a criminal, but well, ok he wasn't convicted of. ok ok, he wasn't indicted. alright, not even arrested. oh yeah? he was arrested for being in a sit-in during Vietnam? wow. Oh man. good luck with all that. This is thin gruel even for you, AR.

Let's open that guilt by association door (watch out for libel suits, AR, you have accused him of murder, in print, several times now).

So now that you're determined to get into obtuse accusations of possibly unsavory fellow board members, let's remember, John McCain was not ASSOCIATED with a criminal. He WAS one of the Keating Five. Remember?

Is the site down?

I hope everyone else who said they'd watch the debate watched it.

The truth about it? From what I just sent somebody else, read below. Obama and Biden are threatening to be low-life thieves and extraordinary loser-vote-buyers, stating that Washington: "should be allowing bankruptcy courts to be able to re-adjust not just the interest rate you're paying on your mortgage to be able to stay in your home, but be able to adjust the principal that you owe, the principal that you owe." Palin could have annhilated Biden and Obama on moral and other grounds right then and there, but made a mistake, insisting on changing the subject back to energy. I suspect Biden saw this as encouraging, for it was at that point that Biden first began to do quite well and appear for the first time to do better than Palin.

...

Both candidates did okay. The universe (liberals, anyway) expected (and hoped) that Palin would fail miserably, and she did not. During the first part of the debate, she did better than Biden. She made one mistake (changing the subject rather than annihilating Biden about something he and Obama want to do: if I heard right, they want to reduce interest rates and _principal_ on outstanding home loans) and in my view was working to recover that superior position after that, and she didn't do this. Once or twice she did what McCain did that I didn't like to hear (or see), repeat typical sound bites in answering questions. She also failed to take Biden apart when Biden argued that progressive taxation is justified due to "fairness." It is nothing of the kind, and with the size of government Obama and Biden want, it will simply be impossible to tax those over $250,000 and reduce taxes on everyone else. The amount of income that needs to be taxed to support what the Dems want forces them to reach well down into the middle class portion of aggregate income. Biden probably had begun the debate deliberately in a timid or more accurately, careful and conservative manner but loosened up about the time he made the controversial statement about revising loan contracts and Palin didn't demolish it, and him. As Biden loosened up he began to do much bettter. I know everyone was afraid of Biden saying something stupid, but he didn't, he actually did quite well when he became animated, it's probably now worth the risk to "let Biden be Biden" out on the campaign trail and for the media to begin to cover him rather than avoid covering him to conceal his gaffes from the public (so as to continue supporting the Democratic Party this year, same as every other year). Overall, it was a draw. Both candidates did fine. It's a draw because honest people would have to strain to name a winner. Neither candidate stood out immediately as better and neither one did notably better.

Transcript of debate:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/02/debate.t...

Here's one state long run by Democrats. Who's next, Michigan? New York?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/...

there's a new TMV it's at: http://themoderatevoice.com !

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